Word.ws English Dictionary

ban

/ˈbæn/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

British/ˈban/

ban verb: to prohibit; to interdict; to proscribe; to forbid or block from participation.

Verb

ban (third-person singular simple present bans, present participle banning, simple past and past participle banned)

  1. (transitive) To prohibit; to interdict; to proscribe; to forbid or block from participation.
    • Bare feet are banned in this establishment.
    • To whom the goodly earth and air Are banned1816, Lord Byron, The Prisoner of Chillon
    Antonyms:
    allow, permit
  2. (obsolete, transitive) To summon; to call out.
  3. (transitive) To anathematize; to pronounce an ecclesiastical curse upon; to place under a ban.
  4. (transitive) To curse; to execrate.
    • They will curse and ban[…]even into the deep pit of hell, all that gainsay their appetite.c. 1555, Hugh Latimer, a sermon
  5. (ambitransitive) To curse; to utter curses or maledictions.
    • :“I seldom ban, sir,” said he to the man; “but if you play any of your hound's-foot tricks, and leave puir Berwick before he's sorted, to rin after spuilzie, deil be wi' me if I do not give your craig a thraw”1814 July 7, [Walter Scott], Waverley; or, ’Tis Sixty Years Since. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), Edinburgh: […] James Ballantyne and Co. for Archibald Constable and Co.; London...

Noun (1)

ban (plural bans)

  1. A prohibition.
    • That sacred fruit, sacred to abstinence,
      Much more to taste it under ban to touch1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished...
    • California has been on the forefront of plastic bag bans. In 2007, Mr. Newsom, as mayor of San Francisco, signed a law that made the city the first in the nation to ban plastic bags in grocery stores.2024 September 23, Soumya Karlamangla, “California Bans All Plastic Bags After Its First Effort Backfired”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 07 Oct 2024
  2. A public proclamation or edict; also, a summons by public proclamation, and in early use especially a summons to arms.
    • Bans is common and ordinary amongst the Feudists, and signifies a proclamation, or any publike notice.1641, John Rastell, translated by William Rastell, Termes de la Lay, 37b
  3. The gathering of the (French) king’s vassals for war; the whole body of vassals assembled this way, or liable to be summoned; originally the same as arriere-ban, but distinct since the 16th century, following French usage—see arriere-ban.
    • […] he hath sente abroade to assemble his van and arriere van; wherby, and with the reste of his forces, he prepareth him selfe to enter this countrey; […]1591, published 1847, Henry Unton, Correspondence of Sir Henry Unton, knt., Ambassador from Queen Elizabeth to Henry IV. King of France, in the years MDXCI. and MDXCII., page 54
    • […] all the Ban and the Arrierban, are met arm’d in the field, to choose a King […]1671, John Crowne, Juliana, or, The princess of Poland a tragicomedy, as it is acted at His Royal Highness the Duke of York's theatre, Act I, page 8
  4. (obsolete) A curse or anathema.
    • With Hecate's ban thrice blasted, thrice infectedc. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac...
  5. A pecuniary mulct or penalty laid upon a delinquent for offending against a ban, such as a mulct paid to a bishop by one guilty of sacrilege or other crimes.

Noun (2)

ban (plural bani)

  1. A subdivision of currency, equal to one hundredth of a Romanian leu.
  2. A subdivision of currency, equal to one hundredth of a Moldovan leu.

Noun (3)

ban (plural bans)

  1. A unit measuring information or entropy based on base-ten logarithms, rather than the base-two logarithms that define the bit.
    Synonyms:
    ditl, hartley

Noun (4)

ban (plural bans)

  1. A title used in several states in central and south-eastern Europe between the 7th century and the 20th century.

Noun (5) capitalized: BAN

BAN

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of British Approved Name.

Proper noun capitalized: Ban

Ban (plural Bans)

  1. A surname.

ban meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu

ban in Hindi

forbid — see also forbid, prohibit, interdict
रोकना roknā, मना करना manā karnā
prohibition — see also prohibition
बहिष्कार bahiṣkār

ban in Tamil

forbid — see also forbid, prohibit, interdict
தடை taṭai

ban in Marathi

forbid — see also forbid, prohibit, interdict
बंदी आणणे bandī āṇṇe, बंदी घालणे bandī ghālṇe
prohibition — see also prohibition
बंदी bandī

ban in Urdu

پابندی, پابندی لگانا, پابندی لگائیں
More languagesFewer languages
ban in Telugu
నిషేధించు niṣēdhiñcu, నిషేధము niṣēdhamu
ban in Malayalam
നിരോധിക്കുക nirōdhikkuka, നിരോധനം nirōdhanaṁ
ban in Kannada
ನಿಷೇಧ
ban in Punjabi
ਪਾਬੰਦੀ
ban in Gujarati
પ્રતિબંધ, પ્રતિબંધ મૂકવો
ban in Odia
ନିଷେଧାଦେଶ
ban in Tagalog
ipagbawal, pagbabawal
ban in Arabic
حَرَّمَ ḥarrama, حَظَرَ ḥaẓara, مَنَعَ manaʕa, حَظْر ḥaẓr
ban in Malay
larang, melarang
ban in Indonesian
cekal
ban in Thai
ห้าม hâam, ปราม bpraam, การห้าม gaan-hâam, ข้อห้าม kɔ̂ɔ-hâam
ban in Vietnamese
cấm, cấm chỉ, sự cấm
ban in Myanmar
တား ta:, ပညတ် pa.nyat

Examples of ban in a sentence

  • These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.2013 August 10, “A new prescription”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848, archived from the original on 09 Mar 2023:
  • Gavin Newsom signed legislation on Sunday banning the sale at grocery checkouts of all plastic bags, regardless of thickness.2024 September 23, Soumya Karlamangla, “California Bans All Plastic Bags After Its First Effort Backfired”, in The New York Times, archived...
  • France was at such a Pinch for Men, […] that they call’d their Ban and Arriere Ban, the assembling whereof had been long disus’ed, and in a Manner antiquated.1683, William Temple, chapter I, in Memoirs of what past in Christendom, from the War begun 1672, to the Peace concluded 1679:
  • The ban was sometimes convoked, that is, the possessors of the fiefs were called upon for military service in subsequent ages; but with more of ostentation than real efficiency.1818, Henry Hallam, View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, chapter II, part II:

All 40 example sentences with ban

Synonyms of ban

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of ban

Forms of ban

Verb
third-person singular presentbans
present participlebanning
past participlebanned
pastbanned
Noun
pluralbans
pluralbani
Proper noun
pluralBans

Past tense of ban: banned

Plural of ban: bans

Origin of ban

Inherited from Middle English bannen (“to summon; to banish; to curse”), partly from Old English bannan (“to summon, command, proclaim, call out”), from Proto-West Germanic *bannan; and partly from Old Norse banna (“to prohibit; to curse”), both from Proto-Germanic *bannaną (“to proclaim, to order; to summon; to ban; to curse, forbid”), from Proto-Indo-European *bʰh₂-new-ti ~ bʰh₂-n̥w-énti, innovative nasal-infixed zero-grade athematic present of *bʰeh₂- (“to say”). Cognate with Dutch bannen (“to ban, exile, discard”), German bannen (“to exile, to exorcise, captivate, excommunicate”), Swedish banna (“to ban, scold”), Vedic Sanskrit भन॑ति (bhánati), Armenian բան (ban) and perhaps Albanian banoj (“to reside, dwell”). See also banal, abandon.

Borrowed from Romanian ban of uncertain origin, perhaps from Serbo-Croatian bân.

From Banburismus; coined by Alan Turing.

Words formed from ban

Phrases with ban

Words that rhyme with ban

48 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about ban

What does ban mean?
Ban means to prohibit; to interdict; to proscribe; to forbid or block from participation.
What is ban in Hindi?
Ban in Hindi is रोकना (roknā), मना करना (manā karnā), बहिष्कार (bahiṣkār). See Ban meaning in Hindi.
How do you use ban in a sentence?
These “legal highs” are sold for the few months it takes the authorities to identify and ban them, and then the cycle begins again.
What part of speech is ban?
Ban can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce ban?
Ban is pronounced /ˈbæn/ (UK).
What is the past tense of ban?
The past tense of ban is banned.

Words near ban in the dictionary

  1. bamsee
  2. bamsees
  3. Bamsey
  4. Bamum
  5. Bamyan
  6. ban
  7. ban hammer
  8. ban hammers
  9. Ban Lung
  10. ban mian
  11. ban overtime

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ban (page history and authors); BAN (page history and authors); Ban (page history and authors); ban (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ban (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ban (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ban (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); ban (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-ban.wav.

Cite this entry: “ban.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ban. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.